Divorce Mediation and Domestic Violence in the United States, 1993 (ICPSR 2561)

This study gathered data on policies and procedures for
identifying domestic violence issues among divorcing couples and
examined divorce mediation practices and policies in cases with
allegations of spousal violence. Mediators and court administrators
provided information on: (1) whether and how they attempted to gauge
the level of domestic abuse and the capacity of divorcing parties to
mediate, and (2) common adjustments to the mediation process made to
enhance safety in divorce cases where domestic abuse is present. Data
collection involved a collaboration with the Association of Family and
Conciliation Courts (AFCC) in the administration and analysis of this
survey. Court programs providing divorce mediation and/or custody
evaluations in 1993 were targeted. The questionnaire was mailed in
late 1993 to 200 institutional members of the AFCC and active
providers of family and divorce services in the National Center for
State Courts database. A total of 149 public-sector divorce mediation
and custody/visitation counseling providers responded. Variables
include information on the rules, statutes, or guidelines under which
the program operates, case handling procedures prior to mediation or
custody/visitation evaluations, and procedures used when clients come
to mediation. Information is also provided on the number of paid
professional staff, number of custody/visitation mediations and
evaluations completed, population of the jurisdiction, the program's
relationship to the court, types of orientation programs for parents
provided by the court, if the community had any supervised visitation
services, and the city and state in which the program is located.

This study gathered data on policies and procedures for
identifying domestic violence issues among divorcing couples and
examined divorce mediation practices and policies in cases with
allegations of spousal violence. Mediators and court administrators
provided information on: (1) whether and how they attempted to gauge
the level of domestic abuse and the capacity of divorcing parties to
mediate, and (2) common adjustments to the mediation process made to
enhance safety in divorce cases where domestic abuse is present. Data
collection involved a collaboration with the Association of Family and
Conciliation Courts (AFCC) in the administration and analysis of this
survey. Court programs providing divorce mediation and/or custody
evaluations in 1993 were targeted. The questionnaire was mailed in
late 1993 to 200 institutional members of the AFCC and active
providers of family and divorce services in the National Center for
State Courts database. A total of 149 public-sector divorce mediation
and custody/visitation counseling providers responded. Variables
include information on the rules, statutes, or guidelines under which
the program operates, case handling procedures prior to mediation or
custody/visitation evaluations, and procedures used when clients come
to mediation. Information is also provided on the number of paid
professional staff, number of custody/visitation mediations and
evaluations completed, population of the jurisdiction, the program's
relationship to the court, types of orientation programs for parents
provided by the court, if the community had any supervised visitation
services, and the city and state in which the program is located.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Dataset(s)

Divorce Mediation and Domestic Violence in the United States, 1993
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Universe:
All public-sector divorce mediation providers in the
United States.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) Consistency adjustments were not made by ICPSR.
(2) The user guide, codebook, and data collection instrument are
provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format
was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using
PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on
how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the
ICPSR Website on the Internet.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
As mediation becomes more common in the court
system, and as the widespread nature of domestic violence becomes more
apparent, the appropriateness of divorce mediation in domestic abuse
cases has become an issue of increasing national importance. While the
strongest criticisms have been directed toward the practice of
mandating abused women to participate in divorce mediation, some
battered women's advocates object to the use of divorce mediation when
there has been any domestic assault. Concerns about divorce mediation
in cases where there has been domestic abuse include the following:
(1) Mediation decriminalizes domestic abuse and encourages a
conciliatory approach that does not hold the abuser accountable for
his behavior, and the abuser may learn there are no adverse
consequences to violence. (2) Victims might be made to feel partially
to blame for the abuse. (3) Ensuring the safety of the victim during a
process that allows the abuser to know the time and place his or her
partner will be present for mediation becomes an important issue. (4)
Power imbalances introduced by domestic violence may render mediation
inherently unfair. (5) The conjoint and compromising nature of
mediation may discourage abused victims from expressing their anger
and deny them the benefits that expressed anger can bring. (6) Joint
custody arrangements favored by mediators may run counter to what is
best for the victim and their children. (7) Mediation may erode the
victim's financial status and deprive him or her of the economic
advantages they may have won through divorce litigation. (8) Questions
arise regarding the caliber of court-based and community-based divorce
mediation programs and the ability of staff to properly screen and
handle cases with domestic abuse. However, most mediators and their
supporters believe that mechanisms such as screening, individual
caucusing, and the use of advocates in mediation sessions can help
mitigate safety and fairness concerns in domestic violence cases. This
study provides information on mediators' and court administrators'
handling of these situations by focusing on: (1) whether and how
mediators and court staff attempt to gauge the level of domestic abuse
and the capacity of divorcing parties to mediate, and (2) common
adjustments to the divorce mediation process made to enhance safety in
cases with domestic abuse.

Study Design:
Data collection involved a collaboration with the
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) in the
administration and analysis of this survey. Court programs providing
divorce mediation and/or custody evaluations in 1993 were
targeted. The questionnaire was mailed in late 1993 to 200
institutional members of the AFCC and active providers of family and
divorce services in the National Center for State Courts database. A
total of 149 public-sector divorce mediation and custody/visitation
counseling providers responded with information on their official
policies and procedures for identifying domestic violence among the
population served, and divorce mediation practices and policies in
cases with allegations of spousal violence.

Sample:
Institutional members of the Association of Family and
Conciliation Courts (AFCC) and active family and divorce service
providers from the National Center for State Courts database.

Data Source:

self-enumerated mailed questionnaires

Description of Variables:
Variables examining mediation include whether
participation in divorce mediation is at the request of one or both
parties, recommended by some or all judges, or mandated by court rule,
practice, or state statute, how decisions are made to exclude cases
from divorce mediation due to domestic violence, how decisions are
made about special approaches to use in cases of domestic violence,
the percentage of cases eliminated from divorce mediation due to
concerns of domestic violence, procedures the program uses to
determine if a referral is appropriate for divorce mediation, the
number and type of questions asked of clients to screen for domestic
abuse, who reviews the screening questionnaire and conducts the
screening interview, opportunities either party had to obtain
information or approach program staff about concerns regarding the
appropriateness of divorce mediation, steps taken when the program
determines that domestic violence has occurred, who has the authority
to decide if divorce mediation will take place, types of follow-up
questions asked of the victim and the abuser when domestic abuse is
reported, issues not negotiable in divorce mediation when domestic
abuse has been identified, and the type and number of hours of
domestic abuse training received by the program's mediators.
Custody/visitation evaluation variables include how custody/visitation
evaluations are initiated, if and how the statute or local court rule
makes special provisions for custody evaluation in cases involving
domestic abuse, procedures the program uses to gather information
about parents in custody/visitation evaluations, number and type of
questions asked of clients to screen for domestic abuse, who reviews
the screening questionnaire and conducts the screening interview, how
often various techniques in conducting sessions are used by counselors
when domestic abuse is reported, percentage of custody/visitation
evaluations conducted as separate, individual sessions only, a mix of
joint and separate sessions, or joint sessions only, and the type and
number of hours of domestic abuse training received by the program's
counselors. Variables providing general information include number of
paid professional staff, number of custody/visitation mediations and
custody/visitation evaluations completed in the previous year,
population of the jurisdiction, the program's relationship to the
court, types of orientation programs for parents provided by the
court, if the community has any supervised visitation services, and
the city and state in which the program is located.

Response Rates:
A total of 149 questionnaires were returned,
which comprised a response rate of 75 percent.

Presence of Common Scales:
None.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Created online analysis version with question text.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 1999-07-01

Version History:

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

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